Panasonic or Pioneer Help

Guest

I am just about to purchase a DVD recorder and need help on the decision. I have narrowed it down to:

1. Panasonic E85
2. Pioneer 520H

I am so far swayed towards the Panny after reading most of the threads. However have noticed that it does not have firewire connection, which the pioneer seems to have. I really want it to record live music videos and movies from sky box, the panny seems to get good reviews on pic quality and sound.

I also want to be able to record onto a disc that can be viewd on a normal dvd player in another room. Can the e85 record onto such a disc that you could record onto again (overwrite)?

Distinguished Member

The only rewritable media the E85 can write to are RAM discs, so the other player in the other room would have to be compatible with them as well. It can also write to DVD-R but these are write once DVDs. As a matter of interest, what do you plan to use the firewire connection for ?

Oh help me Mrs Medlicott I don’t know what to do I’ve only got three bullets and there’s four of Motley Crue

Guest

Yeah the firewire thing is maybe not such a big deal. I was just thinking that if I wanted to connect the CamCorder it would be handy, but I suppose I can use the PC for this. - Other than that I can't think of any other benfits the firewire support would provide, or am I missing something?

On the subject of the other dvd player supporting RAM discs, are there many that do support them?

Distinguished Member

I've already got the E85 But I would take you time to weigh up which would suit you the best. I ended up buying an E55 as well so that I had a compatible player in the other room. You can get a Panasonic S27 that will read the RAMs.

Oh help me Mrs Medlicott I don’t know what to do I’ve only got three bullets and there’s four of Motley Crue

Guest

The e85 has optical digital out. I have a phillips LX700 dvd surround system, it has a input at the back that says digital in. How do I know if this is optical digital in or coaxial digital in? Is there an easy way to tell by looking at it?

Distinguished Member

Normally the optical digital is square whereas the coaxial is a round socket - if you look at somewhere like avland.com you can see the back views of amps and dvd players so you can get an idea what the connectors look like.
I've not had the E85 very long so am not sure about the jpeg thing - do you mean jpegs on a CD or DVD ?

Oh help me Mrs Medlicott I don’t know what to do I’ve only got three bullets and there’s four of Motley Crue

Guest

Very few DVD players or computer DVD drives (even writers) can read the DVD-RAM disks used by Panasonic. The DVD-RW disks used by Pioneer are compatible with far more DVD players and computer drives. This is why I didn't buy the Panasonic.

Also, please consider the Pioneer DVR-420H. It is exactly the same as the DVR-520H except that it doesn't have firewire. I bought mine for just under 390 quid (inc delivery) multi-region from an on-line supplier in November. The Pioneer can display JPEGs from Photo CDs according to the manual.

Guest

I spent weeks comparing downloaded copies of the manuals for various HDD-DVD recorders. I concluded that the Pioneer's user interface gives you more control over the recording and copying processes than the Panasonic one.

Also, the Pioneer is very slim (only 6cm high including its feet).

But I think the incompatibility of DVD-RAM is the decisive factor against the Panasonic. That's my opinion. After all, if you have to buy a new DVD player and/or new computer DVD drive to play DVD-RAM disks then it effectively makes the Panasonic more expensive than it first appears.

Guest

I have noted that both have optical digital out and my dvd sound system has coaxial digital in. I have seen some converters (optical to coaxial) would there be a loss in quality or would it be ok as both are digital?

Active Member

The Pioneers display JPEGs. They adjust the picture dimensions regardless of pixel size, up to a maximum, keeping the aspect ratio so that it always fits the TV screen either vertically or horizontally.
So portrait formats fill it vertically, landscapes fill it vertically until the A/R is are bigger than 16:9 (on a WS TV), e.g. 2.35:1, then the screen fills horizontally.

A word of warning, the JPEGs must be in Baseline format, not Progressive, which is mainly aimed at PC display. There is no difference in quality.

Guest

As long as you're happy that the DVD-RAM rewriteable DVD media Panasonic use are NOT readable on most computer DVD drives and domestic DVD players. The write-once DVD-R media Panasonic (and Pioneer) use are compatible: it's just the rewriteable DVD-RAM disks that are not. The Pioneer uses DVD-RW rather than DVD-RAM. The DVD-RW disks are not quite as widely compatible as DVD-R (i.e. older computer drives and DVD players won't read DVD-RW), but nothing like as incompatible as DVD-RAM (i.e. nearly all new computer drives and DVD players won't read DVD-RAM).

If that doesn't matter but you're still in doubt, download the manuals and have a look: see which user interface you prefer.

Guest

Been following various threads and am trying to find a decent recorder that will either control a Sky box (ie turn it on and tune it to the right channel) or allow the Sky box to control it. I'm looking at the Panasonic DMRE500 but alas it has not controls such as this (the US version does - it has the G-link IR zapper . .why don't we get these?) Does the Pioneer (any?) have any stb controls?

Standard Member

Been following various threads and am trying to find a decent recorder that will either control a Sky box (ie turn it on and tune it to the right channel) or allow the Sky box to control it. I'm looking at the Panasonic DMRE500 but alas it has not controls such as this (the US version does - it has the G-link IR zapper . .why don't we get these?) Does the Pioneer (any?) have any stb controls?

Cheers

Zarkov

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The Pioneer DVR-530 has Guide+ which will control a Sky box. You use the Guide+ EPG to select the program to record and the machine will do the rest.

Active Member

I am just about to purchase a DVD recorder and need help on the decision. I have narrowed it down to:

1. Panasonic E85
2. Pioneer 520H

I am so far swayed towards the Panny after reading most of the threads. However have noticed that it does not have firewire connection, which the pioneer seems to have. I really want it to record live music videos and movies from sky box, the panny seems to get good reviews on pic quality and sound.

I also want to be able to record onto a disc that can be viewd on a normal dvd player in another room. Can the e85 record onto such a disc that you could record onto again (overwrite)?

Which one would you go for? PLEASE HELP

Many Thanks

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Wouln't go for the Pioneer 520h as its successor is the 530H and can be bought at Comet for £399 or much less online.
Why go for the 'old' model?

Well-known Member

There is a posting on this forum (forget just who by) that ram discs will play on PC dvd-rom/writers providing they are set to "locked" on the disc management facility on the dvd recorder. Afterwards they can be unlocked again.